News

Barnhart Named Distinguished Alumnus

The Texas Tech Alumni Association recently named civil engineering alumnus Douglas E. Barnhart a Distinguished Alumnus of the university at a dinner on November 20.

Barnhart, originally from Merkel, Texas, received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Texas Tech in 1969. He founded Barnhart, Inc., a full service general building, engineering and construction management firm based in San Diego, California. The company completed many commercial construction projects including the $92 million Lindgergh Field Terminal 2 Expansion at the San Diego Airport, the San Diego Chargers Training Facility, university and high school buildings in California, as well as government, health care and performing arts projects.

In 2008, he sold Barnhart, Inc., and founded J. Reese Construction, a construction consulting firm, and other real estate companies.

National Computer Science Education Week

The Department of Computer Science recently celebrated National Computer Science Education Week with several activities. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and its partners launched the week to uncover and remedy the inadequacy of the nation’s computer science education system at the K-12 level. Texas Tech hosted a "Computing Through Time" Exhibit and an "On Teaching Computer Science" Colloquium during the week

For the "Computing Through Time" Exhibit, various computer science technology were displayed in chronological order. Highlights included a disk pack and core memory from the late 1960's and one of the first portable computers from Texas Instruments, nicknamed the luggable.

The colloquium featured presentations and discussion by Drs. Michael Gelfond, Nelson Rushton, and Susan Urban. The faculty members provided their perspectives, insights, and experience as seasoned computer science teachers. Pedagogical and teaching methodology changes over time were discussed.

Faculty Recognitions

Anderson Receives Distinguished Teaching Award

The highest awards given by the Texas Tech University System to faculty members at its member institutions were announced on Dec. 11 by Chancellor Kent Hance.

The Texas Tech Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award went to Dr. Edward Anderson, professor of mechanical engineering in the Whitacre College of Engineering.

Anderson joined Texas Tech in 1986 as chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is known for using the latest technology to develop new and innovative teaching techniques and has received more than $400,000 in National Science Foundation funding related to computer-based instruction and engineering education. Among his many honors, Anderson was named the 2005 State of Texas Piper Professor and in 2003 received the National Award for Excellence in Distance Education from the U.S. Distance Learning Association and the Institute for Telecommunications. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Iowa State University and his doctorate from Purdue.

Grants and Contracts

11-19-2009 - 12-15-2009

Chemical Engineering

Dr. Karlene A. Hoo was awarded $80,000 by the American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund. The title of the proposal was "Closed-Loop Reservoir Management Using an Accelerated Karhunen-Loeve-Galerkin Model in a Model-Predictive Control Framework."

Dr. Theodore F. Wiesner was awarded $100,000 by the American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund. The title of the proposal was "Pyroelectrically-Mediated Reduction-Oxidation Reactions."

Computer Science

Dr. Michael Gelfond was awarded $63,655 by IARPA/Arizona State Univ. The title of the proposal was "Integrating Machine Learning & Knowledge Representation for Discovery and Representation of Social and Cultural Insights from Human Language Usage."

Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation

Drs. Hongchao Liu, Cynthia B. McKenney, Sanjaya P. Senadheera, Moon Won, and Richard E. Zartman were awarded $150,000 by the Texas Department of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "Technical Assistance to the Lubbock District of TxDOT."

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Donald Lie was awarded $31,460 by Helen Jones/TTUHSC. The title of the proposal was "TTU Covenant Comprehensive Epilepsy Educational Program."

Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Sukalyan Bhattacharya was awarded $50,856 by the American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund. The title of the proposal was "Fast Simulation of Suspension Dynamics in Presence of Particle-Clusters inside Partially Blocked Channels."

Petroleum Engineering

Dr. Shameem Siddiqui was awarded $20,000 by the American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund. The title of the proposal was "Closed-Loop Reservoir Management Using an Accelerated Karhunen-Loeve-Galerkin Model in a Model-Predictive Control Framework."

Water Resources Center

Drs. W. Andrew Jackson, Audra N. Morse, and Lianfa Song were awarded $69,706 by NASA - Johnson Space Center. The title of the proposal was "A Sustainable Water Treatment System for Long Term Space Habitation."

Drs. Todd A. Anderson, W. Andrew Jackson, and Kenneth A. Rainwater were awarded $140,900 by the USAF/AFMC. The title of the proposal was "Research Needs Related to Natural Perchlorate: Production, Occurrence and Stable Isotopic Signatures."